Old Mutual: Planning to cut and to grow
The company hopes to gain the highest boost from East Africa and is determined to get a foothold in Ghana and Nigeria
Old Mutual lobbied hard for its shareholders to accept its managed separation, which was approved barely a month before the proposed split into two listed entities — the UK-based Quilter listing on Monday June 25 and the Africa-based Old Mutual Ltd on Tuesday June 26. Somewhat bizarrely, Old Mutual Plc will become a subsidiary of Old Mutual Ltd, though it will remain a British company with board meetings in London. And the liabilities connected to the failed Bermuda operation remain on the books. It is easy to forget that the life office originally started buying operations overseas as it acknowledged that it was a mature ex-growth business in SA. Incoming CEO Peter Moyo admits that a large part of the job will be defending market shares in SA in its traditional strongholds of corporate business — where it is considerably more profitable than its competitors, thanks to its large smoothed bonus book. Moyo first came into the executive suite through the corporate division, though he d...
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